Entrepreneurship: Do You Qualify For The Ride of Your Life? The 8 Point Test

My daughter Megan at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, on the day she took the ride of her life.

I recently received an email from a young executive in Mali, Africa in response to an article I’d written for Forbes. She asked, from a land far away, “Can everyone be a successful business builder? Is it a realistic notion?”

“Surely not everyone can succeed at this most difficult endeavor,” she wrote. “Why do some flourish and others fail? Clearly, the odds of high achievement are challenging.”

I liken award winners to a ride in a Supersonic F-16 jet fighter. A few years ago, the U.S. Air Force invited my daughter Megan to fly in one of the Thunder Bird’s magnificent aircraft in the clear blue skies high over the Wasatch Mountains. The invitation was a dream come true. It was an experience she had hoped to realize. Only a few months before, she had made a tandem parachute jump from a plane at 15,000 feet.

She began her adventure early one summer morning at a nearby airbase with an orientation and several hours of instruction on high-speed air travel and its associated risks. Afterwards she received a pressurized flight suit, appropriate footwear and a high tech helmet.

Once on the tarmac, she climbed aboard the sleek fighter and took her seat behind the pilot. There was a highly skilled support team for the pilot and aircraft nearby. She waved enthusiastically to the cheers of family and friends as the plane moved slowly to the end of the runway. Along with others, I waited patiently for the journey to begin. We were told by the base commander the flight would last about 30 minutes at speeds of up to 700 mph and that she’d experience up to 9 times the pull of gravity.

Just then, we heard the deafening roar of the jet engine as the aircraft took off. The pilot flew twenty feet above the ground, it seemed, so we could see Megan in all her glory. Then, picking up speed, he turned the aircraft straight up, reaching an altitude of 40,000 feet, so high we could no longer see the silver plane with our eyes. Over the next half hour, the pilot took Megan on the ride of her life as they flew straight toward the horizon. At some moments the plane was upside down. At times it rolled right, then left.

According to the pilot, the plan would include a barrel roll before landing. Just prior to the last maneuver, however, the base commander said there would be a change in plans. The giddy passenger wasn’t feeling well. Apparently during this amusement ride from Hades, Megan had lost her lunch several times on various of the very steeply banked turns.

At touchdown, the boisterous cheers of the spectators welcomed her home. It was several minutes before an exhausted and wearied aviator disembarked from her aircraft.

Once she was composed, I asked what she’d thought. “Dad, it was the most exhilarating experience of my life, but at the same time the most frightful,” She said. “I will never forget the excitement and awe of flying so fast across the sky. There is nothing like it.”

"Yes! I can't wait!"

“Dad, would you like to take a ride?” “No way,” I said. “I don’t have the guts.”

High speed flight and entrepreneurship have much in common. It’s my belief the list below represents the personal attributes of high soaring entrepreneurs (as well as great pilots). These are as follows:

1. Successful entrepreneurs have an overwhelming desire to succeed.

Without doubt, distinguished entrepreneurs have a passion to build a flourishing enterprise. They think about it constantly. They are obsessed with a dream and pursue it unflaggingly.